System and method for automated adaptation and improvement of speaker authentication in a voice biometric system environment

ABSTRACT

A system for automated adaptation and improvement of speaker authentication in a voice biometric system environment, comprising a speech sample collector, a target selector, a voice analyzer, a voice data modifier, and a call flow creator. The speech sample collector retrieves speech samples from a database of enrolled participants in a speaker authentication system. The target selector selects target users that will be used to test the speaker authentication system. The voice analyzer extracts a speech component data set from each of the speech samples. The call flow creator creates a plurality of call flows for testing the speaker authentication system, each call flow being either an impostor call flow or a legitimate call flow. The call flows created by the call flow creator are used to test the speaker authentication system.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.14/834,390 titled “SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR AUTOMATED ADAPTATION ANDIMPROVEMENT OF SPEAKER AUTHENTICATION IN A VOICE BIOMETRIC SYSTEMENVIRONMENT”, filed on Aug. 24, 2015, which is a continuation of U.S.patent application Ser. No. 14/139,862, filed on Dec. 23, 2013 andtitled “SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR AUTOMATED ADAPTATION AND IMPROVEMENT OFSPEAKER AUTHENTICATION IN A VOICE BIOMETRIC SYSTEM ENVIRONMENT”, nowabandoned, which is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 12/644,343, now issued at U.S. Pat. No. 8,625,772 on Jan. 7,2014, and titled “INTEGRATED TESTING PLATFORM FOR CONTACT CENTRES”,which is also a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No.13/567,089, filed on Aug. 6, 2012, and titled “SYSTEM AND METHOD FORAUTOMATED ADAPTATION AND IMPROVEMENT OF SPEAKER AUTHENTICATION IN AVOICE BIOMETRIC SYSTEM ENVIRONMENT”, now abandoned, the entirespecification of each of which is incorporated herein by reference intheir entirety.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Field of the Invention

The invention relates to the field of voice biometric systemsencompassing speakers in communication networks, and particularly to thefield of automated adaptation and improvement of speaker authenticationaccuracy in a communication network.

Discussion of the State of the Art

The field of voice biometrics has grown considerably with advances inspeech recognition technology and computer processing capability. Aspeaker authentication system is a method for authenticating a speaker'sidentity using the acoustical elements of his voice. For example, anindividual may wish to access his customer account using a telephone,while an enterprise handling the account may wish to ensure that onlyauthorized individuals are able to access specific accounts. In thesesituations, the individual could authenticate her identity using hervoice rather than (for example) inputting dual-tone multi-frequency(DTMF) digits on a telephone keypad to provide a personal identificationnumber or PIN.

FIG. 4 illustrates a typical prior art architecture designed to supportspeaker authentication in a communication network. Speakerauthentication system 401 performs two main functions, namely enrollmentand authentication.

In the enrollment function, a speaker 410 speaks into the system througha voice interface 413 such as a telephone, microphone or other audioinput mechanism. Speaker 410, whose identity is already known usingother means, such as account and password through, for example, DTMFdigit entry, is asked to repeat a collection of pre-configured phrasesthrough an audio input mechanism (for example, a telephone) to berecognized by speech recognition engine 420. By analyzing variouscomponents of the speaker's voice data, enrollment processor 422 learnsthe speaker's voice pattern and creates a voice reference model that isthen stored in speaker database 426. The same procedure would apply foreach additional speaker, for example speaker 411 and speaker 412, whodesire to enroll into speaker authentication system 401.

In subsequent voice interactions with the system, a speaker 411, who haspreviously enrolled with the system as described in the previousparagraph, can now authenticate her identity by using just her voice.Authentication interface 430 prompts the speaker to speak her accountnumber and/or other identifying information. For example, the accountnumber is recognized by speech recognition engine 420 and thecorresponding account is accessed. Authentication processor 431retrieves the associated voice reference model for speaker 411 from thespeaker database 426. The speech pattern is then compared to the voicereference model by the comparison function 432. The comparison ischecked to see whether the resulting score satisfies some thresholdcondition as defined by scoring threshold definition 433 to qualify asauthenticated; for example, speaker authentication may only be completedwhen a confidence threshold of 95% is achieved. A decision on whether ornot to authenticate the speaker is then made by the decision function434.

Since an individual's voice from both the enrollment and authenticationsteps can often contain noise elements (including but not limited toambient noise, additive noise resulting from the characteristics of thecommunication network, voice changes due to age, stress, or health,etc.) that could impede the accuracy of the speaker's true voicepattern, speaker authentication system 401 is apt to have a reducedaccuracy that could result in security and usability issues by allowingfalse accepts (i.e. authenticating impostors), allowing false rejects(i.e. genuine speakers are rejected), or other unintended system issues.In order to mitigate these issues, a speaker authentication system mustundergo regular testing and tuning to improve the authentication processby uncovering and removing security and usability issues.

In a typical voice biometric testing environment, a set of test speakers451 use a test set of spoken account numbers, or other identifyinginformation, of known enrolled speakers 400 to test the accuracy of theauthentication system 431. In an example of one testing scenario, a testspeaker 452 will speak the account number for a previously enrolledspeaker 410. The authentication processor 431 uses the speech that isdigitally recognized through an automatic speech recognition server 420and retrieves the voice reference model that is associated to speaker411 from the speaker database 426 and compared by the comparisonfunction 432. The comparison is scored and cross-referenced to thescoring threshold definition 433. A decision on whether or not toauthenticate the speaker is then made by the decision function 434.Since the testing effort knows that the speaker 452 is indeed animpostor, if the system authenticates the speaker 452 as speaker 410,then it is known that there is a security problem with the system.

The current art of testing voice biometric systems by manually creatingtest speaker samples and running them through the voice authenticationsystem one-by-one would provide little improvement to the voiceauthentication system since creating enough test samples to thoroughlyexercise the system would not be practical. Furthermore, the human laborrequired to create voice test samples in the current art would beincredibly expensive.

The problem with the current art is further compounded when speakersuses various communication devices and networks with a varying degreesof quality.

What is needed is the automatic creation of voice samples for testing aswell as an automated way of presenting the test scenarios to the systemin order to identify security and usability issues.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Accordingly, the inventor has conceived and reduced to practice, in apreferred embodiment of the invention, a system and various methods forautomated adaptation and improvement of speaker authentication in avoice biometric system environment.

According to a preferred embodiment of the invention, a system forautomated adaptation and improvement of speaker authentication in avoice biometric system environment, comprising a speech sample collectorsoftware module stored and operating on a network-attached servercomputer; a target selector software module stored and operating on anetwork-attached server computer; a voice analyzer software modulestored and operating on a network-attached server computer; a voice datarearrangement software module stored and operating on a network-attachedserver computer; a voice data modification software module stored andoperating on a network-attached server computer; and a call flow creatorsoftware module stored and operating on a network-attached servercomputer, is disclosed. According to the embodiment, the speech samplecollector software module retrieves a plurality of speech samples from adatabase of speech samples of enrolled participants in a speakerauthentication system; the target selector software module selects aplurality of target users of the speaker authentication system that willbe used to test the speaker authentication system; the voice analyzersoftware module extracts a speech component data set from each of theplurality of speech samples; the call flow creator software modulecreates a plurality of call flows for testing the speaker authenticationsystem; each call flow being either an impostor call flow or alegitimate call flow to be used for testing the speaker recognitionsystem; the voice data rearrangement software module is used torearrange a plurality of speech samples taken from impostor users inorder to provide an impostor response to a prompt provided by thespeaker authentication system being tested; and the plurality of callflows created by the call flow creator software module is used to testthe speaker authentication system.

According to another embodiment of the invention, the system furthercomprises a voice reference model categorization software module storedand operating on a network-attached server computer. The voice referencemodel categorization software module categorizes some or all of theplurality of collected speech samples according to an attribute of usersof the speaker authentication system that correspond to each categorizedspeech sample, and a plurality of impostor targets to be used fortesting the speaker authentication are drawn from collected speechsamples corresponding to users belonging to a same category as alegitimate target user.

According to a further embodiment of the invention, the system furthercomprises a voice data modification software module stored and operatingon a network-attached server computer. The voice data modificationsoftware module is used to modify a plurality of impostor and legitimatespeech samples to be used for testing.

According to yet another embodiment of the invention, the plurality ofimpostor and legitimate speech samples to be used for testing aremodified by one or more of: insertion of ambient or other noise signals;insertion of specific characteristics of various voice network typessuch as voice over IP networks or mobile telephony networks;modification to simulate a specific speaker age; and modification tosimulate effects of speaker stress or illness. In another embodiment,the system further comprises a campaign processor software module storedand operating on a network-attached server computer; a voice filepresenter software module stored and operating on a network-attachedserver computer; and a result analyzer software module stored andoperating on a network-attached server computer. According to theembodiment, the campaign processor software module determines aplurality of specific call flows to be presented to a speakerauthentication system being tested; the voice file presenter softwaremodule presents each of the plurality of specific call flows to thespeaker authentication system being tested and receives a test resultfrom the speaker authentication system corresponding either to a passedor a failed authentication of the presented call flow; and the resultanalyzer software module analyzes a plurality of test results togenerate at least an indicia of the reliability of the speakerauthentication system.

According to another preferred embodiment of the invention, method forautomated adaptation and improvement of speaker authentication in avoice biometric system environment, comprising the steps of: (a)retrieving, using a speech sample collector software module stored andoperating on a network-attached server computer, a plurality of speechsamples from a database of speech samples of enrolled participants in aspeaker authentication system; (b) selecting, using a target selectorsoftware module stored and operating on a network-attached servercomputer, a plurality of target users of the speaker authenticationsystem that will be used to test the speaker authentication system; (c)extracting, using a voice analyzer software module stored and operatingon a network-attached server computer, a speech component data set fromeach of the plurality of speech samples; (d) creating, using a call flowcreator software module stored and operating on a network-attachedserver computer, a plurality of call flows for testing the speakerauthentication system, each call flow being either an impostor call flowor a legitimate call flow to be used for testing the speaker recognitionsystem; (e) rearranging, using a voice data rearrangement softwaremodule stored and operating on a network-attached server computer, aplurality of speech samples taken from impostor users in order toprovide an impostor response to a prompt provided by the speakerauthentication system being tested; and (f) using the plurality of callflows created by the call flow creator software module to test thespeaker authentication system, is disclosed.

According to another embodiment of the invention, the method furthercomprises the step of: (a1) categorizing, using a voice reference modelcategorization software module stored and operating on anetwork-attached server computer, some or all of the plurality ofcollected speech samples according to an attribute of users of thespeaker authentication system that correspond to each categorized speechsample. A plurality of impostor targets to be used for testing thespeaker authentication is drawn from collected speech samplescorresponding to users belonging to a same category as a legitimatetarget user.

In yet another embodiment of the invention, the method further comprisesthe step of: (a2) using a voice data modification software module storedand operating on a network-attached server computer to modify aplurality of impostor and legitimate speech samples to be used fortesting.

In another embodiment of the invention, the method is characterized inthat the plurality of impostor and legitimate speech samples to be usedfor testing are modified by one or more of: insertion of ambient orother noise signals; insertion of specific characteristics of variousvoice network types such as voice over IP networks or mobile telephonynetworks; modification to simulate a specific speaker age; andmodification to simulate effects of speaker stress or illness.

In a further embodiment of the invention, the method further comprisesthe steps of: (e1) campaign processor software module determines aplurality of specific call flows to be presented to a speakerauthentication system being tested; (e2) presenting, using a voice filepresenter software module stored and operating on a network-attachedserver computer, each of the plurality of specific call flows to thespeaker authentication system being tested and receives a test resultfrom the speaker authentication system corresponding either to a passedor a failed authentication of the presented call flow; and (e3)analyzing, using a result analyzer software module stored and operatingon a network-attached server computer, a plurality of test results togenerate at least an indicia of the reliability of the speakerauthentication system.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING FIGURES

The accompanying drawings illustrate several embodiments of theinvention and, together with the description, serve to explain theprinciples of the invention according to the embodiments. One skilled inthe art will recognize that the particular embodiments illustrated inthe drawings are merely exemplary, and are not intended to limit thescope of the present invention.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary hardwarearchitecture of a computing device used in an embodiment of theinvention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary logical architecturefor a client device, according to an embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing an exemplary architectural arrangementof clients, servers, and external services, according to an embodimentof the invention.

FIG. 4 (PRIOR ART) is block diagram of a typical speaker authenticationsystem according to the art.

FIG. 5 is a system diagram of a preferred embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 6 is a process diagram for setting up an exemplary testingmethodology.

FIG. 7 is a process diagram for executing an exemplary testingmethodology.

FIG. 8 is an illustration of a speech waveform that shows the elementsthat are reusable for call flow creation.

FIG. 9 is an illustration of a speech waveform that shows noise elementsfor enhanced ongoing testing.

FIG. 10 is an exemplary scatter analysis diagram of a two dimensionalauthentication decision-making.

FIG. 11 is an exemplary scatter analysis diagram of a zone-based twodimensional authentication decision-making.

FIG. 12 is another block diagram illustrating an exemplary hardwarearchitecture of a computing device used in various embodiments of theinvention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The inventor has conceived, and reduced to practice, a method andapparatus for the automatic improvement of voice biometric systems thataddresses several shortcomings, described in the background section, ofcurrent systems in the art. Systems deployed in accordance with one ormore embodiments of the invention will generally be easily extensible tohandle new data sources, new call flow models, new interaction types,and series of multiple related interactions, all while providing a verystrong answer to enterprise's security concerns.

One or more different inventions may be described in the presentapplication. Further, for one or more of the inventions describedherein, numerous alternative embodiments may be described; it should beunderstood that these are presented for illustrative purposes only. Thedescribed embodiments are not intended to be limiting in any sense. Oneor more of the inventions may be widely applicable to numerousembodiments, as is readily apparent from the disclosure. In general,embodiments are described in sufficient detail to enable those skilledin the art to practice one or more of the inventions, and it is to beunderstood that other embodiments may be utilized and that structural,logical, software, electrical and other changes may be made withoutdeparting from the scope of the particular inventions. Accordingly,those skilled in the art will recognize that one or more of theinventions may be practiced with various modifications and alterations.Particular features of one or more of the inventions may be describedwith reference to one or more particular embodiments or figures thatform a part of the present disclosure, and in which are shown, by way ofillustration, specific embodiments of one or more of the inventions. Itshould be understood, however, that such features are not limited tousage in the one or more particular embodiments or figures withreference to which they are described. The present disclosure is neithera literal description of all embodiments of one or more of theinventions nor a listing of features of one or more of the inventionsthat must be present in all embodiments.

Headings of sections provided in this patent application and the titleof this patent application are for convenience only, and are not to betaken as limiting the disclosure in any way.

Devices that are in communication with each other need not be incontinuous communication with each other, unless expressly specifiedotherwise. In addition, devices that are in communication with eachother may communicate directly or indirectly through one or moreintermediaries, logical or physical.

A description of an embodiment with several components in communicationwith each other does not imply that all such components are required. Tothe contrary, a variety of optional components may be described toillustrate a wide variety of possible embodiments of one or more of theinventions and in order to more fully illustrate one or more aspects ofthe inventions. Similarly, although process steps, method steps,algorithms or the like may be described in a sequential order, suchprocesses, methods and algorithms may generally be configured to work inalternate orders, unless specifically stated to the contrary. In otherwords, any sequence or order of steps that may be described in thispatent application does not, in and of itself, indicate a requirementthat the steps be performed in that order. The steps of describedprocesses may be performed in any order practical. Further, some stepsmay be performed simultaneously despite being described or implied asoccurring non-simultaneously (e.g., because one step is described afterthe other step). Moreover, the illustration of a process by itsdepiction in a drawing does not imply that the illustrated process isexclusive of other variations and modifications thereto, does not implythat the illustrated process or any of its steps are necessary to one ormore of the invention(s), and does not imply that the illustratedprocess is preferred. Also, steps are generally described once perembodiment, but this does not mean they must occur once, or that theymay only occur once each time a process, method, or algorithm is carriedout or executed. Some steps may be omitted in some embodiments or someoccurrences, or some steps may be executed more than once in a givenembodiment or occurrence.

When a single device or article is described, it will be readilyapparent that more than one device or article may be used in place of asingle device or article. Similarly, where more than one device orarticle is described, it will be readily apparent that a single deviceor article may be used in place of the more than one device or article.

The functionality or the features of a device may be alternativelyembodied by one or more other devices that are not explicitly describedas having such functionality or features. Thus, other embodiments of oneor more of the inventions need not include the device itself.

Techniques and mechanisms described or referenced herein will sometimesbe described in singular form for clarity. However, it should be notedthat particular embodiments include multiple iterations of a techniqueor multiple instantiations of a mechanism unless noted otherwise.Process descriptions or blocks in figures should be understood asrepresenting modules, segments, or portions of code which include one ormore executable instructions for implementing specific logical functionsor steps in the process. Alternate implementations are included withinthe scope of embodiments of the present invention in which, for example,functions may be executed out of order from that shown or discussed,including substantially concurrently or in reverse order, depending onthe functionality involved, as would be understood by those havingordinary skill in the art.

DEFINITIONS

A “database” or “data storage subsystem” (these terms may be consideredsubstantially synonymous), as used herein, is a system adapted for thelong-term storage, indexing, and retrieval of data, the retrievaltypically being via some sort of querying interface or language.“Database” may be used to refer to relational database managementsystems known in the art, but should not be considered to be limited tosuch systems. Many alternative database or data storage systemtechnologies have been, and indeed are being, introduced in the art,including but not limited to distributed non-relational data storagesystems such as Hadoop, column-oriented databases, in-memory databases,and the like. While various embodiments may preferentially employ one oranother of the various data storage subsystems available in the art (oravailable in the future), the invention should not be construed to be solimited, as any data storage architecture may be used according to theembodiments. Similarly, while in some cases one or more particular datastorage needs are described as being satisfied by separate components(for example, an expanded private capital markets database and aconfiguration database), these descriptions refer to functional uses ofdata storage systems and do not refer to their physical architecture.For instance, any group of data storage systems of databases referred toherein may be included together in a single database management systemoperating on a single machine, or they may be included in a singledatabase management system operating on a cluster of machines as isknown in the art. Similarly, any single database (such as an expandedprivate capital markets database) may be implemented on a singlemachine, on a set of machines using clustering technology, on severalmachines connected by one or more messaging systems known in the art, orin a master/slave arrangement common in the art. These examples shouldmake clear that no particular architectural approaches to databasemanagement is preferred according to the invention, and choice of datastorage technology is at the discretion of each implementer, withoutdeparting from the scope of the invention as claimed.

Similarly, preferred embodiments of the invention are described in termsof a web-based implementation, including components such as web serversand web application servers. However, such components are merelyexemplary of a means for providing services over a large-scale publicdata network such as the Internet, and other implementation choices maybe made without departing from the scope of the invention. For instance,while embodiments described herein deliver their services using webservices accessed via one or more webs servers that in turn interactwith one or more applications hosted on application servers, otherapproaches such as peer-to-peer networking, direct client-serverintegration using the Internet as a communication means between clientsand servers, or use of mobile applications interacting over a mobiledata network with a one or more dedicated servers are all possiblewithin the scope of the invention. Accordingly, all references to webservices, web servers, application servers, and an Internet should betaken as exemplary rather than limiting, as the inventive concept is nottied to these particular implementation choices.

“Speaker recognition” is the computational task of validating aspeaker's identity using acoustical characteristics extracted from theirvoice.

A “speech component” is a discrete component of recognized spoken stringof voice data. For example, if the voice data was a string of numbers,“one two three”, the “one” would be a speech component.

A “voice reference model” is a pattern of various components of thespeaker's unique voice data that identifies them for use in a speakerverification system.

A “false accept” in a speaker verification system, is a situation wherea speaker is authenticated as someone other than themselves (i.e. animpostor).

A “false reject” in a speaker verification system, is a situation wherea speaker is not authenticated as who they are (i.e. a legitimatespeaker who is not authenticated).

Hardware Architecture

Generally, the techniques disclosed herein may be implemented onhardware or a combination of software and hardware. For example, theymay be implemented in an operating system kernel, in a separate userprocess, in a library package bound into network applications, on aspecially constructed machine, on an application-specific integratedcircuit (ASIC), or on a network interface card.

Software/hardware hybrid implementations of at least some of theembodiments disclosed herein may be implemented on a programmablenetwork-resident machine (which should be understood to includeintermittently connected network-aware machines) selectively activatedor reconfigured by a computer program stored in memory. Such networkdevices may have multiple network interfaces that may be configured ordesigned to utilize different types of network communication protocols.A general architecture for some of these machines may be disclosedherein in order to illustrate one or more exemplary means by which agiven unit of functionality may be implemented. According to specificembodiments, at least some of the features or functionalities of thevarious embodiments disclosed herein may be implemented on one or moregeneral-purpose computers associated with one or more networks, such asfor example an end-user computer system, a client computer, a networkserver or other server system, a mobile computing device (e.g., tabletcomputing device, mobile phone, smartphone, laptop, and the like), aconsumer electronic device, a music player, or any other suitableelectronic device, router, switch, or the like, or any combinationthereof. In at least some embodiments, at least some of the features orfunctionalities of the various embodiments disclosed herein may beimplemented in one or more virtualized computing environments (e.g.,network computing clouds, virtual machines hosted on one or morephysical computing machines, or the like).

Referring now to FIG. 1, there is shown a block diagram depicting anexemplary computing device 100 suitable for implementing at least aportion of the features or functionalities disclosed herein. Computingdevice 100 may be, for example, any one of the computing machines listedin the previous paragraph, or indeed any other electronic device capableof executing software- or hardware-based instructions according to oneor more programs stored in memory. Computing device 100 may be adaptedto communicate with a plurality of other computing devices, such asclients or servers, over communications networks such as a wide areanetwork a metropolitan area network, a local area network, a wirelessnetwork, the Internet, or any other network, using known protocols forsuch communication, whether wireless or wired.

In one embodiment, computing device 100 includes one or more centralprocessing units (CPU) 102, one or more interfaces 110, and one or morebusses 106 (such as a peripheral component interconnect (PCI) bus). Whenacting under the control of appropriate software or firmware, CPU 102may be responsible for implementing specific functions associated withthe functions of a specifically configured computing device or machine.For example, in at least one embodiment, a computing device 100 may beconfigured or designed to function as a server system utilizing CPU 102,local memory 101 and/or remote memory 120, and interface(s) 110. In atleast one embodiment, CPU 102 may be caused to perform one or more ofthe different types of functions and/or operations under the control ofsoftware modules or components, which for example, may include anoperating system and any appropriate applications software, drivers, andthe like.

CPU 102 may include one or more processors 103 such as, for example, aprocessor from one of the Intel, ARM, Qualcomm, and AMD families ofmicroprocessors. In some embodiments, processors 103 may includespecially designed hardware such as application-specific integratedcircuits (ASICs), electrically erasable programmable read-only memories(EEPROMs), field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), and so forth, forcontrolling operations of computing device 100. In a specificembodiment, a local memory 101 (such as non-volatile random accessmemory (RAM) and/or read-only memory (ROM), including for example one ormore levels of cached memory) may also form part of CPU 102. However,there are many different ways in which memory may be coupled to system100. Memory 101 may be used for a variety of purposes such as, forexample, caching and/or storing data, programming instructions, and thelike.

As used herein, the term “processor” is not limited merely to thoseintegrated circuits referred to in the art as a processor, a mobileprocessor, or a microprocessor, but broadly refers to a microcontroller,a microcomputer, a programmable logic controller, anapplication-specific integrated circuit, and any other programmablecircuit.

In one embodiment, interfaces 110 are provided as network interfacecards (NICs). Generally, NICs control the sending and receiving of datapackets over a computer network; other types of interfaces 110 may forexample support other peripherals used with computing device 100. Amongthe interfaces that may be provided are Ethernet interfaces, frame relayinterfaces, cable interfaces, DSL interfaces, token ring interfaces,graphics interfaces, and the like. In addition, various types ofinterfaces may be provided such as, for example, universal serial bus(USB), Serial, Ethernet, Firewire™, PCI, parallel, radio frequency (RF),Bluetooth™, near-field communications (e.g., using near-fieldmagnetics), 802.11 (WiFi), frame relay, TCP/IP, ISDN, fast Ethernetinterfaces, Gigabit Ethernet interfaces, asynchronous transfer mode(ATM) interfaces, high-speed serial interface (HSSI) interfaces, Pointof Sale (POS) interfaces, fiber data distributed interfaces (FDDIs), andthe like. Generally, such interfaces 110 may include ports appropriatefor communication with appropriate media. In some cases, they may alsoinclude an independent processor and, in some instances, volatile and/ornon-volatile memory (e.g., RAM).

Although the system shown in FIG. 1 illustrates one specificarchitecture for a computing device 100 for implementing one or more ofthe inventions described herein, it is by no means the only devicearchitecture on which at least a portion of the features and techniquesdescribed herein may be implemented. For example, architectures havingone or any number of processors 103 may be used, and such processors 103may be present in a single device or distributed among any number ofdevices. In one embodiment, a single processor 103 handlescommunications as well as routing computations, while in otherembodiments a separate dedicated communications processor may beprovided. In various embodiments, different types of features orfunctionalities may be implemented in a system according to theinvention that includes a client device (such as a tablet device orsmartphone running client software) and server systems (such as a serversystem described in more detail below).

Regardless of network device configuration, the system of the presentinvention may employ one or more memories or memory modules (such as,for example, remote memory block 120 and local memory 101) configured tostore data, program instructions for the general-purpose networkoperations, or other information relating to the functionality of theembodiments described herein (or any combinations of the above). Programinstructions may control execution of or comprise an operating systemand/or one or more applications, for example. Memory 120 or memories101, 120 may also be configured to store data structures, configurationdata, encryption data, historical system operations information, or anyother specific or generic non-program information described herein.

Because such information and program instructions may be employed toimplement one or more systems or methods described herein, at least somenetwork device embodiments may include nontransitory machine-readablestorage media, which, for example, may be configured or designed tostore program instructions, state information, and the like forperforming various operations described herein. Examples of suchnontransitory machine-readable storage media include, but are notlimited to, magnetic media such as hard disks, floppy disks, andmagnetic tape; optical media such as CD-ROM disks; magneto-optical mediasuch as optical disks, and hardware devices that are speciallyconfigured to store and perform program instructions, such as read-onlymemory devices (ROM), flash memory, solid state drives, memristormemory, random access memory (RAM), and the like. Examples of programinstructions include both object code, such as may be produced by acompiler, machine code, such as may be produced by an assembler or alinker, byte code, such as may be generated by for example a Java™compiler and may be executed using a Java virtual machine or equivalent,or files containing higher level code that may be executed by thecomputer using an interpreter (for example, scripts written in Python,Perl, Ruby, Groovy, or any other scripting language).

In some embodiments, systems according to the present invention may beimplemented on a standalone computing system. Referring now to FIG. 2,there is shown a block diagram depicting a typical exemplaryarchitecture of one or more embodiments or components thereof on astandalone computing system. Computing device 200 includes processors210 that may run software that carry out one or more functions orapplications of embodiments of the invention, such as for example aclient application 230. Processors 210 may carry out computinginstructions under control of an operating system 220 such as, forexample, a version of Microsoft's Windows™ operating system, Apple's MacOS/X or iOS operating systems, some variety of the Linux operatingsystem, Google's Android™ operating system, or the like. In many cases,one or more shared services 225 may be operable in system 200, and maybe useful for providing common services to client applications 230.Services 225 may for example be Windows™ services, user-space commonservices in a Linux environment, or any other type of common servicearchitecture used with operating system 210. Input devices 270 may be ofany type suitable for receiving user input, including for example akeyboard, touchscreen, microphone (for example, for voice input), mouse,touchpad, trackball, or any combination thereof. Output devices 260 maybe of any type suitable for providing output to one or more users,whether remote or local to system 200, and may include for example oneor more screens for visual output, speakers, printers, or anycombination thereof. Memory 240 may be random-access memory having anystructure and architecture known in the art, for use by processors 210,for example to run software. Storage devices 250 may be any magnetic,optical, mechanical, memristor, or electrical storage device for storageof data in digital form. Examples of storage devices 250 include flashmemory, magnetic hard drive, CD-ROM, and/or the like.

In some embodiments, systems of the present invention may be implementedon a distributed computing network, such as one having any number ofclients and/or servers. Referring now to FIG. 3, there is shown a blockdiagram depicting an exemplary architecture 300 for implementing atleast a portion of a system according to an embodiment of the inventionon a distributed computing network. According to the embodiment, anynumber of clients 330 may be provided. Each client 330 may run softwarefor implementing client-side portions of the present invention; clientsmay comprise a system 200 such as that illustrated in FIG. 2. Inaddition, any number of servers 320 may be provided for handlingrequests received from one or more clients 330. Clients 330 and servers320 may communicate with one another via one or more electronic networks310, which may be in various embodiments of the Internet, a wide areanetwork, a mobile telephony network, a wireless network (such as WiFi,Wimax, and so forth), or a local area network (or indeed any networktopology known in the art; the invention does not prefer any one networktopology over any other). Networks 310 may be implemented using anyknown network protocols, including for example wired and/or wirelessprotocols.

In addition, in some embodiments, servers 320 may call external services370 when needed to obtain additional information, or to refer toadditional data concerning a particular call. Communications withexternal services 370 may take place, for example, via one or morenetworks 310. In various embodiments, external services 370 may compriseweb-enabled services or functionality related to or installed on thehardware device itself. For example, in an embodiment where clientapplications 230 are implemented on a smartphone or other electronicdevice, client applications 230 may obtain information stored in aserver system 320 in the cloud or on an external service 370 deployed onone or more of a particular enterprise's or user's premises.

In some embodiments of the invention, clients 330 or servers 320 (orboth) may make use of one or more specialized services or appliancesthat may be deployed locally or remotely across one or more networks310. For example, one or more databases 340 may be used or referred toby one or more embodiments of the invention. It should be understood byone having ordinary skill in the art that databases 340 may be arrangedin a wide variety of architectures and using a wide variety of dataaccess and manipulation means. For example, in various embodiments oneor more databases 340 may comprise a relational database system using astructured query language (SQL), while others may comprise analternative data storage technology such as those referred to in the artas “NoSQL” (for example, Hadoop, MapReduce, BigTable, and so forth). Insome embodiments variant database architectures such as column-orienteddatabases, in-memory databases, clustered databases, distributeddatabases, or even flat file data repositories may be used according tothe invention. It will be appreciated by one having ordinary skill inthe art that any combination of known or future database technologiesmay be used as appropriate, unless a specific database technology or aspecific arrangement of components is specified for a particularembodiment herein. Moreover, it should be appreciated that the term“database” as used herein may refer to a physical database machine, acluster of machines acting as a single database system, or a logicaldatabase within an overall database management system. Unless a specificmeaning is specified for a given use of the term “database”, it shouldbe construed to mean any of these senses of the word, all of which areunderstood as a plain meaning of the term “database” by those havingordinary skill in the art.

Similarly, most embodiments of the invention may make use of one or moresecurity systems 360 and configuration systems 350. Security andconfiguration management are common information technology (IT) and webfunctions, and some amount of each are generally associated with any ITor web systems. It should be understood by one having ordinary skill inthe art that any configuration or security subsystems known in the artnow or in the future may be used in conjunction with embodiments of theinvention without limitation, unless a specific security 360 orconfiguration 350 system or approach is specifically required by thedescription of any specific embodiment.

FIG. 12 shows an exemplary overview of a computer system 1200 as may beused in any of the various locations throughout the system. It isexemplary of any computer that may execute code to process data. Variousmodifications and changes may be made to computer system 1200 withoutdeparting from the broader spirit and scope of the system and methoddisclosed herein. CPU 1201 is connected to bus 1202, to which bus isalso connected memory 1203, nonvolatile memory 1204, display 1207, I/Ounit 1208, and network interface card (NIC) 1213. I/O unit 1208 may,typically, be connected to keyboard 1209, pointing device 1210, harddisk 1212, and real-time clock 1211. NIC 1213 connects to network 1214,which may be the Internet or a local network, which local network may ormay not have connections to the Internet. Also shown as part of system1200 is power supply unit 1205 connected, in this example, to ac supply1206. Not shown are batteries that could be present, and many otherdevices and modifications that are well known but are not applicable tothe specific novel functions of the current system and method disclosedherein.

In various embodiments, functionality for implementing systems ormethods of the present invention may be distributed among any number ofclient and/or server components. For example, various software modulesmay be implemented for performing various functions in connection withthe present invention, and such modules can be variously implemented torun on server and/or client components.

Conceptual Architecture

According to a preferred embodiment, a system 500 according to theinvention automatically builds a collection of test scripts that areused to test a speaker authentication system 501 using existing voicedata from previously enrolled speakers as test data. The invention alsocomprises techniques for modifying voice data to, for example, mimicdegraded voice network conditions, and for using modified data inassembling a plurality of test scripts to enhance testing of speakerauthentication system 501.

FIG. 5 provides a high-level diagram of a preferred embodiment of theinvention, which will be useful for discussing aspects of the inventionand improvements inherent in the invention over systems known in theart. According to the embodiment, speaker authentication test system 500is used to test speaker authentication system 501. Testing interface 507is a software module presenting a user interface that may be used toidentify a plurality of desired testing scenarios to be used for testingspeaker authentication system 501. In a typical embodiment, items to betested may comprise a list of user accounts of speaker authenticationsystem 501 that represent speakers who have previously enrolled into thesystem (the “test targets”).

Speaker authentication testing system 500 accesses speech database 530of speaker authentication system 501 of the system to be tested. Speechdatabase collector 510 collects available voice reference models fromspeech database 530 from a set of previously enrolled speakers. In somecases, a voice reference model that is retrieved from speech database530 is categorized by voice reference model categorization softwaremodule 509, using metadata available from speaker authentication system501 to identify one or more specific characteristics associated with aspecific speaker (for example, gender, age, ethnicity, etc.). Voicereference models of previously enrolled speakers are then analyzed byvoice analyzer software module 508 to identify specific componentswithin the voice reference models that may be reused and rearranged toassemble a testing script that may be directed at a test target; forexample, in a case where a voice reference model contains an accountnumber, voice data from a voice reference model containing the digitsmay be broken up into individual components where each componentcomprises voice data corresponding to a single spoken digit of theaccount number. Voice data components are then separated and rearrangedby voice data rearrangement software module 512 to create a new speechsample for testing. Target selector software module 506 may select aplurality of target users of the speaker authentication system that willbe used to test the speaker authentication system. Voice datarearrangement module 512 may rearrange voice components so that aresultant speech data sample will match specific authenticationinformation required to authenticate specific test targets. This may bedone multiple times using different voice reference models from speechdatabase 530 to create a set of voice authentication test scripts for aspecific test target (herein referred to as “impostor test scripts”). Ina preferred embodiment of the invention, some or all of the test scriptsmay be passed to voice data modification unit 513 for modification, thuscreating additional test scripts to mimic one or more types of degradedvoice network environments. Voice modification techniques used by voicedata modification unit 530 may include, but are not limited to,insertion of ambient noise, insertion of specific characteristics ofvarious voice network types such as voice over IP networks or mobiletelephony networks, modification to simulate a specific speaker age, andmodification to simulate effects of speaker stress or illness.

When speech database collector 510 collects a test target's actual voicereference models, associated speech data may passed to voice datamodification unit 513 and a set of voice test scripts based on the testtarget's actual voice are created by modifying the speech data torepresent a degraded voice network environment (referred to as“legitimate test script”). Voice modification may include, but is notlimited to, ambient noise, characteristics of various voice networkssuch as a voice over IP network, age, and the effects of speaker illnessor stress.

Once a set of new testing scripts is created for a test target, a testcall flow may be created by call flow creator 511 and stored in callflow testing database 514. This process is repeated for each test targetidentified in testing interface 507.

In some embodiments of the invention, only voice reference models drawnfrom the same category as a test target speaker may be created andincluded in a testing call flow, but this is not always the case. Forexample, if a test target is identified as a male of age 41, test scriptcreation may use voice reference models of speakers determined to bebetween the ages of 35 and 55.

Once call flow testing database 514 is populated with a desired numberof test call flows, a campaign to test speaker authentication system 501is created by campaign interface 515. Campaign creator 516 retrievescall flows from call flow testing database 514 and passes the retrievedcall flows to campaign processor 517. Campaign processor 517 presents acorresponding voice file using voice file presenter 518 to voiceauthentication system 501. For each test script that is presented tospeaker authentication system 501, a result of whether the system hasauthenticated the speaker or not is analyzed by results analyzer 519. Inthe case of a false accept (i.e. system 501 granted access to animpostor test script), speaker authentication system 501 is notified bydefect notification process 520 that there is a security problem andthat corrective action should be taken. In the case of a false reject(i.e. a genuine speaker was rejected by system 501), speakerauthentication system 501 is notified by defect notification process 520that there is a usability problem (because a legitimate user may beexcluded from access to a system protected by speaker authenticationsystem 501) and that corrective action should be taken.

Description of Exemplary Embodiments

FIG. 6 is a process flow diagram of a process for creating test scriptsand call flows according to an embodiment of the invention. In a firststep 601, a test target is identified. This is generally conductedautomatically by polling a speech database 530 of enrolled speakers uponcommencement of testing activity, but can also be done using a testsetup interface 507 or a combination of both or by some other means. Thetest target's identification information that would normally be used forspeaker verification is identified in step 601. For this example, theidentification information is a numeric account number. If the speakerauthentication system 501 that is to be tested contains categoryinformation for the test target, it is noted. In step 604, speechdatabase 503 is accessed to retrieve voice reference model informationfor other speakers in the same category. The voice reference model isretrieved and analyzed in step 605 to identify available speechcomponents that could be used for test script creation. In step 606, thevoice data components (in this example, digits) are separated into voicedata corresponding to individual parts (i.e. corresponding to eachdigit). The voice data components are then rearranged in step 607 tomatch the digits of an account number identified in step 601. Therewould now be a new script created in step 608 of the test target'saccount number but in another speaker's voice. Furthermore, the otherspeaker's voice may be similar to the test target in that it may be froma speaker of the same age, gender, or ethnicity from the categoryidentified in step 603 and step 604. The test script is then added tothe test call flow in step 609. Additional test scripts are added to thetest call flow by repeating steps 604 to 609.

Once a suitable number of test scripts are created and added to the testcall flow, the system retrieves that test target's voice reference modelfrom speech database 530 in step 610. In step 611, speakerauthentication identification information (in this example, digitsrepresenting the account number), is passed to voice data modificationunit 513 for sound effect manipulation. The effects that are added tothe voice script can be, but are not limited to, changes reflecting adegraded voice network, such as a voice over IP network, changesmimicking speaker of a different age or the effects of speaker stress orillness, and ambient noise added to the voice data. A test script withone or more of the aforementioned effects is created in step 612. Instep 613, the test script is added to the test call flow for the testtarget. Additional test scripts are added to the test call flow byrepeating steps 610 to 613.

Once all the test scripts are completed, the test call flow with thetest scripts is written to call flow database 514.

For each additional test target, the next target is identified in step615 and the process begins again at step 602.

Referring now to FIG. 7, in step 701, a call flow is retrieved from callflow testing database 514. From the test call flow, the first impostortest script is retrieved in step 702. In step 703 the test script ispresented to speaker authentication system 501 that is to be tested. Theresult of the test will either be that the test script is successfullyauthenticated as the target test, or that the test script is notauthenticated as the test target. Since the test script is an impostortest script, normal system behavior should be to not authenticate thetest script in step 706. If that is the case, the system records theresult and continues by retrieving the next impostor test script in step708, otherwise, if speaker authentication system 501 successfullyauthenticates the test script, it is deemed a false accept 705, theresult will be recorded and the speaker authentication system will benotified of the security problem in step 707. Moving onto step 708, thesystem retrieves the next test script in the call flow and the sequencebegins again at step 703.

Referring again to FIG. 7, in step 709, the sequence to test using thespeaker's actual voice reference model begins. In step 709, the systemretrieves the first legitimate test script. In step 710 the test scriptis presented to the speaker authentication system 501 that is to betested. The result of the test will be either that the test script issuccessfully authenticated as the target test, or that the test scriptis not authenticated as the test target. In this case, since the testscript is using the voice data of the legitimate speaker, the normalsystem behavior should be to successfully authenticate the speaker instep 713. If so, the system records the result, and continues toretrieve the next script in step 715, otherwise, if the speakerauthentication system 501 rejects the test script, it is deemed a falsereject 712, the result is recorded, and the speaker authenticationsystem will be notified of the usability problem in step 714. Moving tostep 715, the system retrieves the next legitimate test script in thecall flow and the sequence begins again at step 710.

Once the call flow is complete, the system reports the recorded resultsof the testing in step 716.

Referring now to FIG. 8, in a preferred embodiment where speakerauthentication system 501 is, for example, configured to authenticate anumeric account number, voice data rearrangement process 512 would usethe account numbers contained within the voice reference models ofmultiple speakers who have previously enrolled into speakerauthentication system 501 as test scripts. Furthermore, speakerauthentication system 500 will use speaker voice data in the samecategory as determined by voice reference categorization process 509.The speaker authentication system 500 will then rearrange the voice dataobtained from the voice reference models to match the digit sequence ofthe test target's account number. For example, FIG. 8 illustrates twowaveforms. The first waveform 800 represents the digits of a testtarget's account number, five 801, eight 802, four 803, four 804, andone 805. Waveform 850 represents a suitable audio sample of voice datacontaining digits of another speaker's account number. This voice datawill now be used as elements for creating a script to test the speakerverification of the test target, as determined by the categorizationprocess 509, and an impostor test script. The digits in waveform 850 arethe digits of the impostor's account number five 851, two 852, four 853,one 854, and eight 855. In this example, voice data rearrangementprocess 512 would identify and reorganize the sequence of components 851to 855 to match the sequence of the test target's account number. Inthis case, the rearrangement sequence would result in five 851, eight855, four 853, four 853, and one 854 to match the test target's accountnumber. Speaker authentication testing system 500 now has the first teststring for use in testing the test target, whose account number is five,eight, four, four, one. Call flow creator 511 would write the resultingimpostor test script to call flow-testing database 514. The entiresequence described here would repeat until enough impostor test scriptsare available for thoroughly testing the test target. The sequence wouldcommence again for each test target that is to be tested.

Referring now to FIG. 9, the illustration shows two voice datawaveforms. In this example, waveform 900 is a voice data sample from avoice reference model retrieved from speech database 530 from an actualtest target in an effort to create legitimate test scripts to test afalse reject. Since waveform 900 has little or no noise 901, voice datamodification unit 513 modifies waveform 900 by adding ambient noise 951to waveform 900. The resultant waveform 950 is added to call flowtesting database 514 by call flow creator 511 to be used as a legitimatetest script to test speaker authentication system 501 during the testexecution effort. By providing this functionality within the test setupprocess, testing can be done in an automated fashion using multiplevoice data samples from a given test target. The idea in this example isto test using existing voice data with typical effects, in this exampleambient noise, seen on a various communications network in order to testthe speaker authentication system 501 more robustly and in an automatedfashion. In another exemplary interpretation of FIG. 9, the resultantwaveform 950 can correspond to noise that corresponds to the effects ofa mobile phone network. In yet another exemplary interpretation of FIG.9, the resultant waveform 950 can correspond to background noise in, forexample, a public location, train station, or retail establishment.

As mentioned above, it is desirable to test the speaker authenticationsystems 501 to improve speaker authentication accuracy by identifyingfalse accepts and false rejects in a variety of communication networkconditions that are typically found in typical communication networks.The following table is an example describing six different testingscenarios when creating testing call flows for call flow testingdatabase 514:

TABLE 1 Example of Test Cycles for Enrollment and Verification. CampaignSpeech Dataset Type Outcomes 1 Clean Sample Impostor Identify falseaccepts 2 Clean Sample Legitimate Identify false rejects 3 Modified Set1 (output Impostor Identify false from voice data accepts modificationunit 513) 4 Modified Set 1 (output Legitimate Identify false rejectsfrom voice data modification unit 513) 5 Modified Set 2 (output ImpostorIdentify false from voice data accepts modification unit 513) 6 ModifiedSet 2 (output Legitimate Identify false rejects from voice datamodification unit 513)

The key point of Table 1 is that a typical testing scenario wouldinclude one or more speech datasets within the testing call flows incall flow testing database 514 representing a good communication network(that is, clean samples) and other datasets that mimic degradedconditions such as those described with reference to FIG. 9. Othermodified datasets could be, but are not limited to, datasets thatrepresent the insertion of specific characteristics of voice networktypes such as a voice over IP networks and mobile telephony networks,datasets resembling the effects of a speaker's age, and datasetsresembling the effects of speaker illness. Each call flow then usesthese datasets to test for false accept and false reject conditions, inan automated fashion, to improve the speaker authentication system.

Referring now to FIG. 10, scatter diagram 1000 is an exemplaryrepresentation of a graph used to score results of testing speakerauthentication system 501 based on known legitimate speakers and knownimpostors using methods described herein. The “o” markers on graph 1000,for example 1006, represent a legitimate speaker for speakerauthentication system 501. The “x” markers, for example 1007, representan impostor speaker for speaker authentication system 501. Horizontalaxis 1001 of graph 1000 represents scoring level for the firstauthentication data element used to authenticate a speaker, for thisexample, the digits representing the speaker's account number. Verticalaxis 1002 represents the scoring level for the second authenticationdata element used to authenticate the speaker, for this example, thevoice data corresponding to the speaker speaking her date of birth. Thefurther along to the right that the “x” marker or the “o” marker fallson horizontal axis 1001, the higher the speaker scored in authenticatingher account number. The same applies to vertical axis 1002 for theauthentication scoring result for the date of birth authentication dataelement. When a properly working speaker authentication system 501 istested by speaker authentication test system 500, legitimate speakers(i.e. the “o” markers) should reside primarily in the upper right handquadrant of graph 1000, for example 1004. Furthermore, impostors (i.e.the “x” markers) should fall in the lower left quadrant of graph 1000,for example 1005. Scoring results in this manner also indicates areaswhere speaker authentication system 501 can improve. For example, 1006is a known legitimate speaker who scored low on both account number anddate of birth authentication. This would indicate a potential usabilityissue. For speaker 1007, the speaker scored high in both account numberand date of birth authentication, but is a known impostor. This wouldindicate a security issue.

FIG. 11 illustrates a similar scatter diagram 1100 to FIG. 10 thatadditionally uses a zoned configuration to determine how to managesecurity and usability issues resulting from accepted and rejectedspeakers in speaker authentication system 501. As in FIG. 10, the “o”markers on graph 1100, for example 1105, represent a legitimate speakerfor speaker authentication system 501. The “x” markers, for example1107, represent an impostor speaker for speaker authentication system501. Horizontal axis 1101 of graph 1100 represents the scoring level forthe first authentication data element used to authenticate the speaker,for this example, digits representing the speaker's account number.Vertical axis 1102 represents the scoring level for the secondauthentication data element used to authenticate the speaker, for thisexample, the voice data corresponding to the speaker speaking her dateof birth. The further along to the right that the “x” marker or the “o”marker falls on horizontal axis 1101, the higher the speaker scored inauthenticating her account number. The same applies to vertical axis1102 for the authentication scoring result for the date of birthauthentication data element. The zones separated by, for example, line1108 determine collective actions that can be taken for the markers thatreside within the zone based on whether the speaker is an impostor (i.e.an “x” marker) or a legitimate speaker (i.e. an “o” marker). Forexample, legitimate markers 1104 represent ambiguity on authenticatingaccount number but a pass on the date of birth authentication. Thisresult would be provided to speaker authentication system 501 by defectnotification process 520. For marker 1103, the speaker was authenticatedon date of birth analysis only. This result would be provided to speakerauthentication system 501 by defect notification process 520. Forspeaker 1106, the legitimate speaker was not authenticated; thissignifies a usability issue. This result would be provided to speakerauthentication system 501 by defect notification process 520. Speaker1107 and speaker 1105 are in a zone that implies ambiguity inauthentication. This result would be provided to speaker authenticationsystem 501 by defect notification process 520. The speakerauthentication system 501, when notified can then take the appropriatecorrective action based on the type and severity of the notification.

The skilled person will be aware of a range of possible modifications ofthe various embodiments described above. Accordingly, the presentinvention is defined by the claims and their equivalents.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for testing performance of a contactcenter using virtual agents, the method comprising: importing actualcall performance data regarding a human contact center agent from aconfiguration server in a contact center environment to create abehavior profile that specifies a behavioral response of a virtualnon-human agent to a call; logging the virtual non-human agent into acontact center server to respond to calls; generating, using a callgenerator, calls to simulate actual inquiries to the contact center;assigning the virtual non-human agent to respond to the generated callsaccording to the behavior profile; and recording details of callshandled by the virtual non-human agent, wherein the virtual non-humanagent simulates the behavior of the human contact center.
 2. A systemfor testing the performance of a contact center, the platformcomprising: a storage medium for storing a behavior profile specifying abehavioral response by a virtual non-human agent to test calls in acontact center; a call generator for generating test calls to thecontact center; and a campaign processor that directs the generation oftest calls that are responded to and that records details of the testcalls handled by the virtual non-human agent; wherein the behaviorprofile is created based at least in part on performance data regardinga human contact center agent, the performance data obtained from aconfiguration server in a contact center environment; and wherein thevirtual non-human agent simulates the behavior of the human contactcenter agent.
 3. The system of claim 2, wherein the behavior profileincludes at least one activity to be performed by the virtual non-humanagent.
 4. The system of claim 3, wherein the at least one activityincludes maximum and minimum call durations.
 5. The system of claim 2,wherein the campaign processor schedules calls for a predetermined time,interval and volume.